It’s only ten weeks until summertime for Sydney. I wonder if any of the music stations are going to make use of the long, hot days and smash out some summer branding?
I lurve this Triple M ad and branding from 1993 as it is 100% Summer, 100% Sydney and 100% Triple M.
I can never understand why a station in Sydney would not want to associate itself to the best three months of the year.
WS - Pure Summer
2DayFM - The 104 Days of Summer
KIIS - Summer Hits
Nova - Love Summer Love Nova
Triple M - Summer Rockin’
I’ve recently noticed on three or four different occasions over the past few weeks that two identical songs were being played perfectly in sync on WSFM and Smooth 95.3. I initially thought that my preset buttons had glitched out the first time it happened, but then it happened again twice, and then again last night at midnight.
No way! Nothing beats summer - its school holidays, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, BBQs, wearing shorts, hanging out on your friends’ balconies and in their backyards. Most of all - it’s that smell of the grass when you leave the house in the morning.
And if you live in Sydney it means you can also excited about the new 2DayFM breakfast show that starts in January. There’s also a lot less hate in the air as Alan Jones is on holidays.
Well, it is said somewhere in this forum (particularly by yours truly ( )), that WSFM & Smooth’s playlists are practically quite similar, particularly on the softer songs. You could also say that WSFM sounds more like what Mix 106.5 used to sound before it became KIIS.
According to Online Radio Box’s playlists for WSFM & Smooth, the song they played simultaneously at around midnight on 11-12th September 2017 was “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” by Tina Turner. You can find other examples by clicking on the respective stations & compare between the two.
This was getting OT for the SC thread, but I agree using 1341 for a Geelong-based station would have been ideal, though I don’t know that another commercial station would work. Way too much overspill from Melbourne - just look at the last ratings from Geelong where the local stations returned pitiful figures…
In all honesty, 1341 would be better used as a local ABC station. The mind boggles that so many smaller areas have their own ABC station yet still after 10-15 years of discussion Geelong still does not. The Chinese HPON could find another home, maybe more suitably in Melbourne, and the ABC could utilise a frequency and transmission location that has served the Geelong area well for many decades
Wow, I remember that one. Good blast from the last when the M’s were at the top of their game in Sydney. I do seem to recall Triple M had a summer station ID to the tune of Panama by Van Halen.
Was up in Maryborough today and listened to Zinc 96. It’s basically a local station and sounds just as strong as Triple M. A great listen as ever and it reminded me of US stations common in smaller cities over there. It’s basically a rock based classic hits station that also plays selected new songs. It’s 80 or even 90% classic hits from 70s, 80s and 90s with the rest new music that fits the audience. They were pretty heavy on the 70s too which surprised me. Loved it. Don’t know why the likes of Gold/WS don’t sound more like that.
In Melbourne early 80s 3MP used to brand itself as “that summer feeling all year long!” strange given that Melbourne weather in winter and spring is generally cold, wet and brutal!
These days I am using my pocket analog radio. I got one from the Sony store. The am performance is great. Battery life is also excellent.
One thing it has over the analog sangean pocket radio which is important, is the background noise you get from the circuitry. It drives me nuts to hear a buzz at low volumes. I know it is a first world issue.
On the flip side, I am just a bit disappointed with the fm. I dont like the dx/local switch. In local mode it wipes out the local stations. I am not in a super strong fm area. Dx mode means I cant hear stations like abc local radio in Illawarra. You hear sbs radio instead.
I am lucky I got a good fm radio on my lg v20 phone. It is a shame Sony are not making these radios anymore. Probably the bush digital pocket radio is still the one I use the most but analog radio is great for going to watch cricket or the footy. There is also something great about listening to am radio especially talk station stations.
Sony Japan still makes heaps and heaps of these products which are now obsolete in Western markets. For example, they just released a brand new cassette tape player/boombox only a month or so ago. There are also some very fancy looking pocket AM/FM radios.
Only due to the (mis)management. Two commercial stations can attract a viable share in such a market if operated correctly. It’s a common industry perception that the Camerons are not good at dealing with competitive markets.
Here’s a thought, DAB+ for Geelong, put a local ABC on there.
Perhaps Laurie Atlas can be lured back to colder climes to host breakfast or mornings. His talk show in Qld is a good quality.
@nickatnights it all comes down to what experiences you’ve had in summer. For some people it may mean, skin cancer/melanoma death, bushfires burning down houses and businesses, summer flings that never happened or breakups that broke hearts all year long, loneliness of Christmas due to loved ones sorely missed or for radio tragics, general frustration at the lack of quality on air talent or wall to wall automation.
Lets go back to one Christmas Day not so long ago where WS FM were on auto as fires raged around their licence area. Oops, has happened more than once. Greg Henricks, news director at C91.3 cut short his Christmas celebrations and sobered up quick smart to provide coverage to Campbelltown RA1 audiences.
Summer should be looked forward to for radio stations, people are generally on holidays or in a festive mood with Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year. This is when people are trying different listening choices. A radioinfo.com.au report many years ago suggested special effort be devoted to fill in programming for that very reason and provided a very persuasive case.
)), that WSFM & Smooth’s playlists are practically quite similar, particularly on the softer songs. You could also say that WSFM sounds more like what Mix 106.5 used to sound before it became KIIS.
